1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a network file server, and more particularly to a network file server servicing a number of clients simultaneously.
2. Background Art
A network file server may support any number of client-server communication protocols, such as the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).
UDP is a connectionless protocol. There is one fast pipe or stream of messages (e.g., requests) over a network link from a number of clients to one or more servers. The messages get mixed together during transmission in the pipe.
TCP is a connection oriented protocol. Each client is assigned a separate pipe to a respective server.
The servers execute code threads that service respective client messages. In the UDP case, there are lots of code threads to service client messages.
In the TCP case, the threads are assigned to respective pipes, and the pipes are assigned to respective clients. Therefore, the threads remain connected to the respective clients. There are fewer TCP threads, and some threads are very busy and others are not very busy, since the threads remain connected to the clients.